Etymograph

English

piazza

Piazza comes from Italian piazza ‘square, plaza’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ‘to spread, extend’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleth₂-‘to spread, extend’root as named
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλατεῖα
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplatea
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentpiazza‘square, plaza’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1913same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleth₂-‘to spread, extend’root as named
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπλατεῖα
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplatea
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentpiazza‘square, plaza’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1913same form

Earliest quotation: 1913, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, New York: “Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…].…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ‘to spread, extend’

flat, plane, plate, platinum, lateral, plat, plantain, flan, plaice, 15 more

through Latin platea

displacement, plaza, platz, 6 more

Today it means

noun A public square, especially in Italian cities.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- / piazza

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